


Smile In The Face Of Fear (This Is Not A Drill)

by MissRomanceJunkie



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Discussions About Fear, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Kiss, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Prompt Fill, no actual dentistry takes place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-18
Updated: 2016-11-18
Packaged: 2018-08-31 10:46:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8575360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissRomanceJunkie/pseuds/MissRomanceJunkie
Summary: “I ain’t going so you can shove your ‘it’ll be fine, Buck’ and your ‘even kids do it without this much fuss’ right up your ass ‘cos I don’t give a shit,” Bucky said, his Brooklyn accent shining through unbidden with his ire.

  He slammed the door in Steve’s face and returned to his blanket cocoon on the couch.

  Stupid Steve with his stupid ideas and his stupid stubbornness.
When Bucky has a fight with Steve over a trip to the dentist, it’s Tony who he seeks out for refuge. Somewhere between the soft words and hysteria, keeping the appointment might not be the only thing Bucky gets up the courage to do.Written for the anonymous Tumblr prompt: “A prompt for a shorter story: Bucky's first visit to a proper dentist in 70 years (could be fluffy, could be potentially horrifying for Bucky, considering the parallels). No pairing required, really, but if you're up for it I'd love some winteriron!”





	

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for the prompt, anon. I had a lot of fun with it. :D Also, special thanks to the (other? same?) anon that sent me title ideas! *hugs* You made it so much better.
> 
> Also, apparently my idea of a short fill is 3.5K... Oops. :P Enjoy. :)

“I ain’t going so you can shove your ‘ _it’ll be fine, Buck_ ’ and your ‘ _even kids do it without this much fuss_ ’ right up your ass ‘cos I don’t give a shit,” Bucky said, his Brooklyn accent shining through unbidden with his ire.

He slammed the door in Steve’s face and returned to his blanket cocoon on the couch.

Stupid Steve with his stupid ideas and his stupid stubbornness.

It was just like him to try and railroad all over his friends under the pretense of _helping_. Bucky had forgotten what it was like to be on the receiving end though and had even chuckled at Steve’s mother-hen behaviour with the rest of the team over the past couple of months since he’d moved into the tower. Now though, well, he had a whole new respect for Tony. The man not only put up with Steve’s caretaking quirks but adapted to them, used them to get just what he wanted at any given moment. Usually that meant food or coffee but Bucky had actually seen Steve carrying a sleepy Tony up to his floor once.

He was pretty sure he was the only one who had noticed the soft smirk on the engineer’s face.

However Tony managed it, Bucky was clearly going to have to ask for some pointers because Steve-wrangling was not one of the pre-Winter Soldier skills he remembered how to do.

“FRIDAY? Has Steve left our floor yet?”

“ _Captain Rogers appears to be making his way to the gym, Sergeant._ ”

“Alright. Thanks, Fry.”

The AI had taken a bit of getting used to at first; sudden disembodied sounds tended to set off all sorts of warnings in his mind, bringing the remnants of the Soldier mindset to the forefront and giving Bucky a hair’s trigger for a few hours. Once Steve had realised what was triggering him, he’d stormed down to Tony’s workshop and all anyone knew was that the two men hadn’t spoken for three days. However, half an hour after Steve had almost broken his bedroom door slamming into his room, Tony had come up to their floor looking for Bucky.

Between Tony, FRIDAY and Bucky, they came up with a sound FRIDAY could play before speaking that wasn’t nearly as jarring as speech with no sounds of life preceding it. Now, Bucky had no need for it, fully comfortable in the tower with its technological wonders, but whenever there had been a problem the team had worked to fix it for him, to make his life a little easier. Chief among them, giving Steve a run for his money, was Tony. If Bucky was honest with himself, Tony’s solutions were often a lot more beneficial than Steve’s, who tended to advise time and caution where Tony would encourage knowledge and change.

Bucky loved Steve like a brother, that hadn’t changed even if his memories of their shared past were still hazy, and sometimes Bucky really wasn’t ready to move past an issue, but Tony was progress and development in one hot, compact package. More importantly, Tony never forced Bucky to address his problems but he was always stood right next to him with a way to move forward, ready to walk that path beside him as soon as Bucky was ready to take it.

Bucky left his floor quickly and silently, navigating the corridors like he had done countless buildings before, carefully and warily, his superior senses on high alert for movement. His journey was uneventful though, which usually meant FRIDAY was silently keeping the rest of the tower’s inhabitants away from him, and he was soon stood at the reinforced doors of Tony’s workshop. Bucky wasn’t any danger to any of them, he just didn’t really want another argument, but he was grateful to FRIDAY nonetheless.

A quick glance at the display showed Tony had locked himself in but a touch of his hand to it had it lighting up green, the doors opening with a harsh sound of released air. Something deep inside of Bucky calmed at the sound, knowing that the recent updates to Tony’s workshop would ensure the man’s safety, something that had become necessary to Bucky’s healthy state of mind. They were friends, Bucky knew this, Tony had told him as much on numerous occasions when Bucky’s own self-disgust had urged him to run from the tower and find himself a hole to fade away in.

Tony was more than that to Bucky though, he’d become safety and understanding to Bucky. It was why he was here now. There were lots of places to hide from Steve in the tower after all, but none of them smelled of hot metal and electricity, none of them would smile at him like they’d just seen the sun for the first time.

Down here he could sit in motionless silence, shout the whole place down, cry until there were no tears left, talk until all his fears were laid bare… Down here with Tony, he could do whatever he needed to to get himself through this moment and into the next and once he’d reached that next moment, Tony would help him decide how to live it, how to change it into a better moment than the last one.

Talking today, Bucky thought. He had too many words stuck in his head that he didn’t want to let out at Steve when his best friend had only been trying to help. Tony would take them, he understood the need to get things out like that, even vile, horrid words that weren’t really true or didn’t make sense.

Today would be easier than those times though, more about fear than hatred.

Tony looked up as he entered, ready to watch and listen for what Bucky needed, always ready to give him whatever that was. Bucky didn’t deserve him but that was an argument he never seemed to win, even with himself these days and that was a good thing, that was how he let himself do this, to seek out the support he needed. It hadn’t always been that way.

“Hey, Bucky. What brings you down here today?” The genius smiled softly, not a word about Bucky using his override codes, just a welcoming calm.

“Steve’s a dick,” Bucky said without thought, happy when Tony had to stop what he was doing to laugh. Bucky’s own lips twitched up into a smile.

“Well, I could have told you that. What has our esteemed leader done to deserve such strong words today?”

“I’m not going.”

Tony blinked twice, slowly, processing, before turning off the device in his hand and waving away the holograms that hovered a few feet in front of his face. He spun around on his chair to face Bucky, elbows resting on his knees as he clasped his hands together.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Well yeah, Buck, if you don’t want to go to the dentist today, we can just make you another appointment.”

Bucky had come down here just for this, acceptance, but hearing it now he realised that wasn’t what he needed. The way Tony was still watching him likely meant that Tony knew that too.

“It isn’t because of the chair,” Bucky said eventually. “Well it is, but not because- because of _the_ chair.”

Tony stood up and came towards him and Bucky had to fight the urge to take a step back. Tony was nothing in comparison to him, without his suit he was no threat at all, even here in his workshop where Tony was never more himself, surrounded by his own inventions and completely in his element. And yet, he took up so much space, so much energy that it could make you feel so very small if you weren’t sure of your own size, of your own worth.

Bucky held his ground and Tony smiled as he reached him, slowly taking Bucky’s arm and leading him over to the ratty couch Steve had dragged in here one afternoon. He’d complained about not having anywhere to sit when he came to visit but everyone knew full well their Captain had been more bothered about Tony having somewhere to sleep when he’d worked himself to exhaustion. Tony knew as well and it was a testament to his and Steve’s friendship that he allowed it.

To Bucky, it was a sign that the two people who meant the most to him would look after each other if he wasn’t around to do it. It was a thought he never spoke aloud though, knowing full well how it would be received by the two men.

“HYDRA was all you knew for a long time Bucky. If that was the problem now, it would be completely normal. That kind of thing has lasting effects that you don’t see until you’re experiencing them.” Bucky knew Tony was speaking from experience. He’d told Bucky about many of them during moments just like this one, enough to stop him from brushing the words away as he might have done with someone else.

“I know, and I’m sure there will be effects we haven’t come across yet but this one…”

Bucky shouldn’t have come down here. Tony was so _good_ and he was sat here waiting for Bucky to talk him through his thoughts so that he could help him. After everything he had been through himself. God, after everything _Bucky_ had been through and told Tony about… This was just stupid. Steve was right, he was being ridiculous, and now he was wasting Tony’s time too, he was-

“Stop,” Tony said firmly, a hand on Bucky’s fist, the thumb rubbing circles into the cool metal at his wrist. Bucky let the tension go and Tony linked their fingers together like he had done only once before. It sent chills down Bucky’s back and he couldn’t stop himself from squeezing the hand a little, just enough to show that the action was welcome. “Whatever you were thinking just now, you can stop it. I know that look and you’re wrong, okay? Now,” Tony said without waiting for a response, “why don’t you want to go to the dentist?”

To Bucky’s absolute horror and Tony’s startled amusement, a blush rose to his cheeks.

“I- I-” Tony resumed the circles, this time on the back of his hand where he could reach without letting go of Bucky’s hand. Bucky took a deep breath and hoped to any deity that was listening that Tony wasn’t about to die from laughter. “I don’t want them to take my teeth out,” Bucky said ever so quietly.

Well, there was no laughter. That had to count for something right? Tony looked… Bucky had no idea how to describe how Tony looked. Constipated was the closest he could get.

“And why-” Tony stopped to cough and there was a twitch at the corner of his mouth that gave him away. “Why do you think they’re going to pull your teeth out exactly?”

Bucky frowned at his friend but Tony only let a little more of his smile show, laughter filling his eyes even as he moved closer to Bucky, twisting their arms together to show his support. Bucky didn’t push him away.

“I haven’t been to a real dentist in going on seventy years, Tony! For all I know, they’re all completely rotten! There was an old man, Mr Sen- Sek- _Selmon_ , yeah, Mr Selmon. He lived a few doors down from us and my ma used to help him with his groceries and stuff. He had to have _all_ his teeth out and he used to tell us how awkward his false teeth were. Tony, he’d _take them out and show us_! And Rebecca, my sister, she had to have one taken out after she tripped and fell down outside. Cracked her tooth right down the middle and ma made me sit outside the room as she screamed and screamed as she had it took out!”

By the end, Bucky was breathing heavily and Tony had scooted down the sofa a bit after all since Bucky had pulled his arm away and started gesticulating madly. He missed Tony’s warmth immediately.

“I- Umm… You know that your serum takes care of any damage right?” Tony asked hesitantly.

“Yes, I know that! I never said my fear is rational, Tony!”

“Alright, okay,” Tony said, hands held up in the well known gesture of surrender. “Look, even if the serum didn’t almost guarantee that the most you’ll have to suffer is a cleaning, dentistry isn’t like what you remember, Bucky. There’s better pain meds for a start and I don’t even want to imagine what dentures looked like back then.” Tony pulled a face and even through the fear, it forced Bucky to relax a bit.

“Yeah, they were terrifying. I mean I was only 8 years old.”

“Plenty of people don’t like the dentist for a whole host of reasons, it’s totally normal. In fact, I’d say it’s plenty _abnormal_ not to hate it with a passion.”

Bucky sighed, throwing his head against the back of the sofa. “I know I gotta go,” he muttered. “I just couldn’a said all tha’ ta Stevie ya know?”

It was only Bucky’s enhanced vision that let him catch the faint darkening of Tony’s cheeks. He was pretty sure even Tony wasn’t fully aware of his reaction to Bucky’s Brooklyn accent, which was exactly why he loved to bring it out around the billionaire.

“Steve can be pretty hard headed,” Tony said, his voice a touch rougher than it had been a moment ago.

“Understatement,” Bucky said, taking pity on Tony and letting his voice drop back into its new normal.

“He’d have listened though.”

“Yeah.” Bucky didn’t say that Tony was the first person he always thought of when he felt overwhelmed. He’d have ended up down here even if Steve hadn’t tried his bulldozer approach to getting him to attend his appointment.

Tony glanced at his watch before scanning over the materials he’d left scattered over his workbench. “It was at two o’clock, right?”

“...Yeah.”

“How about I come with you? I’m sure I can manage to talk enough to distract you at least a little bit.”

It was more than he should ask for, more than he should allow Tony to give. He was clearly in the middle of something and as much as Bucky hated it, he was an adult, he should be a man and get his ass to the dentist himself.

He held in a shiver, barely.

“You sure you’ve got the time?”

“Hey, this stuff is boring SI stuff for Pepper. Upgrades for the next StarkPhone. Really, you’d be the one doing me the favour, rescuing me from tedium like this.”

Bucky chuckled. “Heaven forbid you should do as your CEO commands.”

“The woman has too much power, Bucky. I’m becoming concerned she plans to usurp me.”

“Tony, you genuinely wouldn’t cope without her.”

“You got that right. Woman’s a marvel.”

“Yes.”

It took Tony a second to switch gears.

“Wait, yes Pepper deserves all the shoes or yes Tony, I graciously accept your offer to escort me to the dungeon- I mean dentist.”

Bucky just shook his head. Nothing could get through to him like Tony-speak. Tech-jargon, endless rambling, sleepy muttering, it didn't matter. Tony just had a way about him, a way of describing things or explaining processes that just pulled Bucky out of his own head and back into the present, into life. Tony-speak.

“The second one. Please.”

“Please, huh?”

“Uhuh.”

“Well since you said please.” Tony jumped up and headed towards the exit. “Better get a move on, Buck. We’ve got to get across town yet.”

Bucky shook his head at the man’s energy. Yeah, Tony was really something.

\---

“I’m going to kill Steve,” Bucky said gingerly. His mouth fucking _hurt_.

“You realise I’m the one that convinced you to come, right? Or do we need to get your eyes tested as well?”

Bucky shot him the dirtiest look he could muster when his gums were on fire. Tony just laughed.

“Stevie was the one that got FRIDAY to make the damned appointment.”

“Oh yeah, I can see what you mean. Such a slight should have dire consequences.”

“You think you’re being cute but I’ll just add you to the revenge list.”

“I am cute, it’s a well recognised fact.”

Bucky snorted but reached over to ruffle Tony’s hair, much to the other man’s dismay.

The appointment hadn’t been nearly as bad as Bucky had feared and Tony had been right, he’d gotten away with just a cleaning. However, that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to get his own back on Steve.

“Maybe,” he said. “Don’t suppose there’s any point in telling you not to let it go to your head, though.”

“Not one bit,” Tony smirked.

They’d had to park a fair walk away from the dentist, a distance they’d had to run on the way to the appointment in order to make it on time. The silence between them now was comfortable though and it was a few minutes before Bucky felt the need to break it.

“Thank you, Tony. For coming with me. It seems stupid I bet, for me to be so afraid of something like that, after what I’ve been through, after what you have.”

“Not necessary, Bucky. I’m just glad I could help.” Tony’s words were soft and even Bucky had to lean in a little to hear them on the busy street. “And you’re right. Fear is something I’ve got an intimate understanding of, which is why I know that it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks; if the fear is real for you, then it’s valid, it’s important, and it shouldn’t have to be ignored. Anyone who tells you otherwise has never known real fear.”

Bucky wished he could hug him, let him know how true his words were and how much it meant to Bucky that he would choose to share them with him. Tony didn’t let many people see into him like this and Bucky treasured it. Tony wouldn’t accept it though, he didn’t deal with his problems quite the same way as Bucky did. Luckily, Bucky knew how to get through to Tony too.

“I’m thankful all the same and if you need someone to hide behind when Pepper comes knocking, you just let me know. Stevie’s not the only one who knows how to use his position to his advantage.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ve seen your ‘woe is me’ routine. I still can’t believe you got Clint out of a briefing to play video games by claiming the Xbox was pushing you to the edge with its unorganised menus.”

“You’ve just got to give them the right look at the same time. I call it the ‘Remember, I really was born in the 1920s’ look.”

“It was Fury.”

“He’s a teddy bear, really.”

Tony choked on a scoff and Bucky had to give him a few hard pats to the back.

“We talking about the same Fury? The guy with the eyepatch that still manages a menacing enough stare to make baby SHIELD agents pee their pants?”

Bucky smirked. “Pussy cat.” Tony burst into genuine giggles and Bucky had never seen anything so pretty.

“How about you thank me with a coffee. Lifeblood of the enlightened,” Tony said once he’d caught his breath again.

“Well, why don’t-” Bucky winced at the cut off thought.

“Hmm?”

“I was going to say that we could go for coffee now, if you’d wanted, but I’m not really in a state for it now, am I?”

“Oh, no, guess you’re not.” Tony deflated a little and it pushed Bucky into action. Today was a day to be brave, after all.

“How about we do dinner instead tomorrow? Once my gums stop feeling like they’ve had glass shoved in them.”

Tony’s smile made the whole wretched day worth it. As if in response to the thought, Bucky felt the twisted knot of fear that had been sat at the bottom of his stomach since FRIDAY had made the dentist appointment a week ago, finally loosen.

Bucky could breathe again.

His own grin was just as bright as Tony’s and it took a lot for him not to lean over and taste it, the lingering residue of the dentist’s ministrations being the deciding factor.

“Is that a yes?” He said, ignoring the bubble of doubt trying to surface at Tony’s silence.

“That’s a Hell yes, Bucky-bear. You’ve got yourself a date.”

Tony pulled on his shoulders to steal a chaste kiss regardless and really, who was Bucky to complain?

“Now then, I think you said something about planning revenge?” Tony asked, staying close.

Bucky laughed and if it sounded closer to relief than humour, Tony wasn’t calling him on it.

“Steve isn’t going to know what hit him, is he?”

“Nope. He won’t even see it coming,” Tony grinned, a little maniacally. Bucky really couldn’t find it in himself to worry for Steve though, the punk needed to learn to have a little fun.

“C’mon then, Doll. We better get started,” Bucky said as he held out a hand to Tony that was quickly taken.

“Don’t you worry,” Tony responded with a smirk, “I have plenty of ideas.”

There were always going to be things that got in Bucky’s way, but big or small, ridiculous or life-shattering, as long as he had Tony on his side he was pretty sure he’d be okay.

And since Bucky was planning on keeping Tony as close to his side as physically possible, he wasn’t really worried at all.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are love. :)
> 
> My ask box is always open, so if you have a prompt for me (winteriron/stony/stuckony/stucky) you can find my ask page [here](http://missromancejunkie.tumblr.com/ask). :D


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